Follow along with the latest coronavirus news from Scotland and further afield.

ALEX Salmond will today lay out a “Route to Independence” as he launches his Alba Party’s national campaign on the 701st anniversary of the declaration of Arbroath.

EASTER, a time of great renewal.

SUPPORT for rural Scotland should be for life, not just the length of a campaign trail, but my past experience covering elections would beg to differ.

THE son of a 97-year-old woman has made a formal complaint to the health ombudsman in a row over his mother's state care allowance.

A CONTROVERSIAL “dementia tax” that penalises self-funding care home residents in the final years of their lives is set to be axed following a campaign by The Herald and Alzheimer Scotland that has received cross-party support.

SOMETIMES, as the late, great Prince once reminded us, it snows in April. And that’s what’s happened in Scotland, with Aberdeen and Inverness and all points north-east in particular seeing snow yesterday. In other parts there was a lighter sca...

The number of people cycling more than doubled in some parts of Scotland last year as lockdown restrictions led to a drop in road traffic and growing safety confidence.

LIBERAL Democrats have drawn up radical proposals to shift the balance of power away from ministers towards MSPs – alongside plans to overhaul the voting system in response to Alex Salmond’s threat of “direct manipulation”.

SCOTTISH “Airbnb for business” firm Occupyd has hailed growth of 850 per cent during the coronavirus pandemic after receiving £1.2 million worth of bookings on the platform in the last year.

ANNE Wimberley (Letters, April 5) contends that the big difference between Scotland, and New Zealand, Finland and Sweden, is that "the leaders and political parties in these countries actually care about their citizens and make policies to improve...

By Ian McConnell

A Glasgow-based recruitment technology firm has said it expects to grow employee numbers by more than 500 per cent by the end of next year after clinching two important contracts.

A year after the Scottish Government announced it had appointed a heavy hitter to run the new Scottish National Investment Bank questions about what the organisation is for are getting ever louder.

A POST Covid baby bust, how to help dogs adjust to life after lockdown and vaccine passports were the topics discussed by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

YOU have to admit it. It’s box office. The man who almost delivers independence for Scotland passes the torch to his female protege. He can’t deal with playing second (or third, or fourth) fiddle so he starts interfering and questioning whethe...

Volume control

THE first mention of a passport seems to be by Nehemiah who, in what would be a breach of the current regulations, was handing out the drinks to King Artaxerxes indoors, and feeling glum about the state of Jerusalem’s walls. The King gave him le...

FOR much of the last decade, the nature of Scotland’s relationship with England has been under intense scrutiny. But as we weigh up the relative merits of Union, ‘devo max’, federalism, and independence, it is worth remembering that Scots ha...

Former Welsh secretary Dame Cheryl Gillan has passed away at the age of 68 after a lengthy illness, the Conservative Party has confirmed.

A petition has been launched calling for a tougher crackdown on those flouting rules following a mass brawl in The Meadows in Edinburgh.

IMMUNITY passports could play an “important role” in the country’s reopening from the pandemic and unlocking international travel, a UK Government paper has confirmed.

Dr Genevie Fernandes outlines some considerations to ensure a fair, accessible and effective process if such a concept is rolled out in Scotland.

Tom Gordon

Former Welsh secretary Dame Cheryl Gillan has passed away at the age of 68 after a lengthy illness, the Conservative Party has confirmed.

The UK must be “realistic” over the resumption of foreign holidays due to “a surge” of coronavirus in popular destinations, Boris Johnson said.

WILLIE Rennie is not convinced pro-independence parties will be able to secure a supermajority after May's Holyrood election – pointing to what the Lib Dems leader labelled a “steady decline in support” for breaking up the Union.

RETAILERS hailed the reopening of garden centres and hairdressers in Scotland

George Galloway’s pro-union ‘All for Unity’ group is launching legal action against the BBC and STV over leader debates in the run-up to the Scottish parliamentary elections.

AT those times when you realise you can’t fit a Rizla between the social policies of our main political parties you become prone to fits of paranoia.

This is meant to be the independence election. Yet it has already followed HIS a well-trodden path towards avoiding the subject completely.

By Ian McConnell

Scotland recorded 248 new coronavirus cases and no deaths of Covid-19 patients in the past 24 hours, according to the latest data.

HEALTH Secretary Jeane Freeman has confirmed the Scottish Government is considering digital vaccine records for coronavirus as Boris Johnson announces passport trials to unlock the economy.

The A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful is to remain open overnight for the first time in over eight months in a 24-hour trial operation over the next two days.

SCOTLAND’S unique not proven verdict is set to be scrapped in the next parliament because it is too “confusing”, Humza Yousaf has announced.

NICOLA Sturgeon must put the constitution aside and “focus on the job in front of her”, which is tackling the economic crisis arising from the pandemic, Gordon Brown has said.

SCOTTISH Labour want to create 5,000 “properly-paid” apprenticeships to help hand opportunities to young people as the country emerges from the pandemic.

The Scottish Government is working to develop digital vaccine passport certificates that are ethical and ensure equity, according to Scotland's Health Secretary.

It’s a difficult time for policing in the UK. Handling the unusual circumstances surrounding both the Sarah Everard tragedy and subsequent police actions, were always going to be a challenge for the Metropolitan force. The Clapham Common inquiry...

TWO former provosts have defected from the SNP to the Alba Party – with one warning their former party's leadership to “lay off the negative personal attacks”.

LOOPHOLES regarding fox hunting must be closed to put a stop to all “cruel” killings through hunts with dogs, the Scottish Greens have said.

I WAS talking the other day to Ian Hamilton, the Scottish nationalist who helped take the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey in the 1950s and someone who I think you could fairly call an icon, a high-celebrity of nationalism, so, naturally, I...

Hairdressers and barbers have reopened this morning along with some non-essential shops, including garden centres and homeware stores, as lockdown measures are eased.